Unheard radio from Verstappen-Norris Imola duel · RaceFans

Max Verstappen’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix victory was his fifth of the 2024 season, but certainly his most hard-fought.

For the final laps, he had to face gradually growing pressure from Lando Norris in the McLaren – fresh from his first grand prix victory and hungry for more.

While they converged over the final phase of the race, they had rather varied runs to each other over the 63 laps, as could be heard from the radio conversations between Verstappen and race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase as well as Norris and his engineer, Will Joseph.

Here is how the races played out for the two main protagonists over the course of Sunday afternoon, told through their respective radio waves.

2024 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix radio: Verstappen and Norris

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“We’re worried about the rears…”
“Why are we staying out?”
“I’m trying and he’s a lot quicker…”
“Lando’s found some pace…”
“Leave me to it”

“We’re worried about the rears…”

Despite getting away from the grid well, Norris had wheelspin through the second phase of his start which prevented him from getting a run on the Red Bull down to the first corner. Verstappen kept the lead with Norris slotting into second place with Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari in third position.

DRS was activated at the end of the opening lap, but with just a single DRS zone on the circuit, Red Bull pushed Verstappen to try and ensure he was more than a second ahead of Norris as he reached the detection zone on the run down to Rivazza. If Norris managed to stay within a second, the benefit of having DRS could make it very difficult for Verstappen to shake him during the early phase of the race.